


This Time It's a Good Kind of Surprise, I Promise

by Void (EroEmo)



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Birthday Presents, Canon Compliant, Fluff without Plot, K-Science (Pacific Rim), M/M, Newton likes innuendos and Hermann let them pass, Oblivious Hermann, Pre-Relationship, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, and Newt as well (to some extent)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-29 17:52:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14478030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EroEmo/pseuds/Void
Summary: Hermann has known Newton for long enough to anticipate a disaster when the lab suddenly falls quiet. However, this time he's wrong.





	This Time It's a Good Kind of Surprise, I Promise

He really, truly enjoyed those quiet evenings in their shared laboratory. Those were so scarce it was basically a luxury, to be able to just peacefully sit and work without hurting one’s vocal chords in between writing equations.

However, chances that it was an unthreatening silence, were _really_ low. Usually, when lab did fall silent, it meant that something bad was about to happen. Either that or it already had happened, but Newton was stalling the revelations, not mentioning anything to him until the problem became too obvious to ignore.

Last time he spilled coffee on Hermann’s notes, pretending for the whole afternoon that he had seen Hercules’ dog coming to the lab and snatching them straight from the desk. The time before that, Newton accidentally splashed some kaiju blue on one of the sweaters Hermann had freshly put out of the laundry. He tried to convince him for two days that Hermann probably had left it somewhere in his room and just lost it, that he _imagined_ washing it with other sweaters.

He could never understand this bizarre way his colleague tried to avoid confrontation, especially because both of them knew that Hermann would be much less annoyed if Newton told the truth right away. Apparently, he had a mentality of a ten years old in some matters.

“You are remarkably well behaved tonight, Newton,” he said as he stood up, leaning on his cane. Newton glanced at him from his laptop, fingers hovering over the keyboard. “What did you do?”

His colleague snorted, going back to typing something on his laptop.

“I have no idea what are you talking about, dude.”

“Music isn’t playing infuriatingly loudly from your device, you’re not singing or humming and, what’s probably the most telling thing of all, you did not try to argue with me today even once.”

“Should I interpret that as a statement that you _look forward_ to our discussions, Herms?”

Hermann’s eyebrow dangerously twitched and Newton probably noticed that, since now he was fiddling with his bracelet. A small yet very meaningful gesture of his. Showing his slowly rising distress.

“Newton,” he repeated himself, quickly approaching the other side of the room, his cane’s tapping loud in the worrisomely quiet lab. “What. Have. You. Done.”

“Hermann, I swear-”

“ _Newton._ ”

His colleague sighed dramatically, closing his laptop. Whatever it was, it seemed less stressful and more annoying for him that it had a right to be. At least in Hermann’s opinion. What was Newton Geiszler hiding this time?

“Are you sure you want to know right here and now, man? Because I can assure you that-”

“ _Yes,_ Newton,” he answered firmly, piercing the other man with a stern look. “I want to know _now_.”

He groaned as he stood up, excusing himself for a moment. As if to bring something with him. Probably, Hermann supposed, the evidence of yet unnamed crime.

He sincerely could not comprehend why Newton was acting the way he was. Sure, they had their differences and yes, most of their conversations involved passionate arguments, yelling and shouting in a hideous mixture of English and German, as well as malevolent remarks from time to time. But in all of this, there was also a place for some kindness, too. Polite discussions over upcoming tasks, reminiscing about the past where everything was almost normal.

They relationship probably seemed fierce to the outsider but for them, this strange bond was more than enough.

Or so Hermann had thought, now waiting for Newton to return from whatever place he had headed to a few minutes ago.

He was about to roll his eyes to nobody but himself and go look for the man when, to his surprise, he finally showed up. With a box in his hands.

“Technically it’s still too early but let’s say it is the right day in some other parts of the world, so like…” He trailed off, quickly regaining his focus and looking at Hermann. “Happy Birthday, Herms.”

For a sole minute, Hermann had forgotten how to speak.

“Um, dude? Are you okay?”

“Newton,” he blinked, trying to put it as simply as possible. “It’s not my birthday today.”

“I know, it’s tomorrow, man,” Newton answered, still holding the box in front of him. “But you thought I’ve once again done something _bad_ or _nasty,_ or some other shit, so like, I’m trying to clean my account here.”

“No, I mean,” Hermann started over, looking at the box — a _gift_ for _him_ — and then back again at his colleague. “It’s not my birthday today or tomorrow, it’s nowhere near it, Newton.”

“Um, yes it is?” He looks at him suspiciously, a small smile threatening to show up on his face. “Dude, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten about your own birthday because _oh my God_.”

“I certainly have not,” he opposed, almost _scowling_.

“Yes you have!” Now, Newton was clearly amused. “And now you’re trying to hide it!”

“I don’t try to _hide_ anything, Newton,” Hermann said in a mildly annoyed tone, glaring at the other man. “You are the one in the wrong here as it is _not_ my birthday.”

“Man, just say I’m right and don’t act anymore because honestly? You suck at it.”

“I’d agree with you, but then we’d both be wrong,” he replied with a somewhat snarky smile, trying to go around Newton, back to his desk.

“Hey, where are you going?”

There was no way Newton could be right on this one. He was Hermann Gottlieb, a mathematician for Lord’s sake, he would not have forgotten about such a trivial thing as his own birthday date, thank you very much.

That’s why, while ignoring Newton’s questions, he reached for his desk calendar — to prove his colleague wrong.

“Newton, as you can see, it is, in fact, _not_ my birthday,” Hermann said as he grabbed the tiny notebook, a calendar of sorts. “It is, to be precise, June…”

He stopped mid-sentence, the number ‘9’ mocking him from the small page.

It _was_ his birthday, oh God.

“Yes?” Newton grinned at him mischievously, pride beaming from his entire posture. “Please, don’t hold back.”

“Oh, shut up, Newton.”

How on Earth he managed to forget about _his own birthday_ ? How was that even possible? What was more, how did _Newton_ not only remember the date but also found some time to buy him something?

“As I said before, happy birthday, you grump,” he said, handing him the box.

Hermann sighed in resignation, trying to fully accept the fact that he, actually, was wrong on this one. However hideous it sounded.

“Happy birthday to me,” he reluctantly opened the gift, the regular carton box revealing to contain something soft and dark. “What is it?”

“Take it out and see, duh,” Newton poked him in the arm, still smiling. Hermann deliberated on hitting him with his cane.

In the end, he decided on following the obvious advice. The soft material turned out be a _sweater,_ and not in the Geiszler-like style, which was actually a bit surprising. It was exactly in Hermann’s taste, toned colors pleasing to look at and matching with other clothes he owned.

Hermann looked at Newton, not really knowing what to say and such circumstances were even more rare than the silent lab they had been sharing for over three years, almost four.

“I’ve never really made up for that blue-stained one so I’ve thought that maybe now it’s right about time,” he chuckled, a bit nervously, at _that_ was even more out of place than Hermann forgetting about his birthday.

Newton Geiszler was never _anxious._ Not openly, at least.

“That’s a really… thoughtful gift, Newton.” Hermann folded the sweater back into the box, trying to repress the smile that tried to show up on his face. “Thank you.”

“I wanted to give it to you tomorrow, maybe during a little night out, but you accused me of something and I could not-”

“What night out?” He asked, side-eyeing his colleague.

“Well,” Newton ruffled his already messed up hair, hanging his other hand on the jeans pocket. “My plan was to drag you out of here, because I _know_ you wouldn’t go willingly, to somewhere nice, you know? For a good coffee or tea, because let’s be real, you deserve that. Both of us do, actually. And _then_ I wanted to give you your present but now my idea is kinda ruined so thank you very much, Hermann.”

He scoffed, for a good measure, but if it did anything, it only made Hermann actually _amused._ And a bit of warm around the heart.

“I suppose we can still go out tomorrow,” he said, carefully putting the gift on his desk. “But if the place you mentioned is that shoddy bar around the corner, then I’d be glad to just drink some coffee from the canteen above, thank you.”

“First of all, wow,” Newton said with a genuinely sounding surprise, a fond tinge to it. “That’s kinda unexpecting that you want to _go out with me_ but I’m not gonna complain right now.”

Hermann rolled his eyes at the implication his colleague just made but did nothing to explicitly deny it, something stopping him from doing just that. Something he couldn’t exactly name right now.

“And secondly, that place is not _that_ bad, dude!” He crossed his arms, making an offended face at Hermann. “They serve great drinks and far better chicken than our canteen.”

“Your taste buds are probably rotten from the amount of chemicals you inhale _daily_ so excuse me if I don’t believe you on this one.”

Newton scoffed, throwing his hands up and then letting them fall back to his sides, that dramatic gesture having exactly zero effect on Hermann. He had been dealing with the man for too long now for such a thing to bother him in a slightest.

“You’re hurting me, Herms! Me and my feelings!” Newton exclaimed, spreading his palm over his heart. “And my taste buds!”

“I will also hurt your arm or leg, if you don’t quit acting like a drama queen, Newton.”

The man gasped loudly, his eyes widening. Everything exaggerated to the maximum, making Hermann roll his eyes _really_ hard.

“I’ll let this one slide because it’s your birthday but you’re on a thin ice, Herms,” Newton narrowed his eyes, making a comical gesture of ‘ _I’m watching you’_ with his hand.

Hermann sometimes wondered how on Earth did he find that man eloquent. Mature and intelligent, someone to look up to. Every single idea he had had about him had been ruined the moment they met and time did almost nothing to improve that. In fact, the longer Hermann had to deal with Newton, the more certain he was about two things.

First, Newton Geiszler was a disaster of a homo sapiens, constantly bordering on being a narcissistic know-it-all with an attitude of an annoying child. He was indeed smart, terribly intelligent, even, but it did very little to help his overall image, once you got to know him personally.

Second, he himself was no better, as apparently he had been drawn closer and closer to the aforementioned catastrophe with a genius brain. Not only was he growing a thicker tolerance for his behaviour, he was also feeling _fond_ of him. In a way.

“I hate you.”

“I know,” Newton gave him an amused smile, slowly retreating to his side of the room.

Hermann, somewhat reluctantly, returned to his work as well.

**Author's Note:**

> This is 100% self-indulgent, silly fic, as I can't get enough of the two of them just being happy and oblivious, you know? Not to mention I can't write a proper angst, even though I'd love to. Maybe another time.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
